Condi: Diplomat in Action!

Another round fired from the US Dept. of Hypocrisy? They distort, you decide.

From WaPo comes this gem:

MANAMA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took aim at Syria on Saturday over its human rights record, stepping up Washington's bid to isolate Damascus internationally.

The top U.S. diplomat used a conference in Bahrain attended by Arab leaders trying to promote economic and political reform, to criticize what she said was Syria's "arbitrary detention" of human rights activists.

"We continue to support the Syrian people's aspirations for liberty, democracy, and justice under the rule of law," said Rice in a sideways swipe at the government in Damascus.

"We would like to see an end to the arbitrary detentions of democratic and human rights activists -- including Kamal Labwani and all the prisoners of conscience from the Damascus Spring," she added.

Hard to know just how this is going to play out in the court of international opinion.

With Guantanamo Bay, secret CIA 'detention centers,' and some officials in the US government actively working to block anti-torture legislation - still fresh in the news - it would appear that the US will have difficulty claiming the 'moral high-ground' here.

Sure, lots of Americans only think about what's in the freshest news cycle, but outside our borders, people aren't so quick to forget.

I applaud Rice's efforts. However, I think that they are apt to fall upon an audience justifiably puzzled by the chasm between our word and our actions.